Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate was conducting search operations at multiple locations in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday in a case relating to the evaluation of answer scripts of the Group-I Main Examination conducted by the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC).
The ED officials were carrying out searches under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at seven premises located in Hyderabad and Secunderabad in Telangana and in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.
The case is related to irregularities in the manual evaluation of the answer scripts of the APPSC Group-I Main Examination, in the course of which an amount of Rs 1,14,32,312 was alleged to have been paid to a private party, officials said.
The searches were being conducted at the premises of IPS officer P. Seetharamanjaneyulu, the then Secretary, Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission; Camsign Media Pvt. Ltd., the private party to which the work of manual evaluation was entrusted, and its Managing Director, P. Madhusudhana Rao; Aavasa Resort Haailand, Chinakakani Village, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, being the premises at which the answer scripts were kept, and the evaluation exercise was carried out.
The searches were also on at the premises of TruGrader Services, a division of Stone Media Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd., which had conducted the earlier digital evaluation for APPSC, its Managing Director, Akella Peri Srinivasa Rao, and Mahamkali Raghuram, who was engaged in connection with the evaluation work.
The APPSC Group-I examination was conducted in 2000 when the YSR Congress Party was in power, and an investigation into the alleged irregularities was ordered after the TDP-led NDA came to power in 2024.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Andhra Pradesh Police probed violations, allegedly committed in the digital and manual evaluation of answer sheets. It reportedly found multiple lapses, including flouting of the APPSC’s own rules.
The exam notification was issued on December 31, 2018; the preliminary examination was conducted on May 26, 2019, and the Main (written) exam was held in December 2020. Results of the Main examination were declared on April 28, 2021, following the adoption of digital evaluation.
Headed by DGP (CID) Ravi Shankar Ayyanar, the SIT, which was constituted through a G.O. dated February 14, 2026, stated in its report that the APPSC initially had adopted a digital evaluation process and declared the Mains results on April 28, 2021, shortlisting 326 candidates for interviews.
The digital evaluation process was questioned before the Andhra Pradesh High Court on the ground that such a method was not contemplated in the notification, resulting in an interim order staying the interviews. Subsequently, the High Court directed the APPSC to undertake manual evaluation of the answer scripts.
The SIT investigation established that the digital evaluation was affected by significant procedural deviations at nearly every stage and that the evaluator panel was neither sourced nor vetted in the manner required by the APPSC Office Manual. Persons outside the approved panel evaluated scripts and were paid for that.
This report was published from a wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.